“It’s been kind of a trial by fire this year,” McNeill said. Still, he said, he has enjoyed himself. “It was refreshing to come off the roads and work with the kids.”

The classes are offered for an hour a week. In first and third grades, the programs are short, lasting just a few classes. The officers talk about safety, mostly gun safety, McNeill said.

The fifth-grade program runs from mid-October through May.

“We talk about making good and healthy decisions,” McNeill said. D.A.R.E.’s emphasis is no longer on avoiding drugs and alcohol, he said. “Now it’s more of a social perspective. We try to give kids a foundation to make good decisions.”

Topics include Halloween safety, bullying at school and in cyberspace, and Internet safety.

“It teaches them how to make life decisions they may not get in any other course,” Peperni said.

The D.A.R.E. classes also let students meet police.

The program “allows them to have that positive contact with a police officer,” McNeill said.